Mercy: the basis of morality, religion and humanity

Mercy occupies an important place in the hearts of people, in human culture, religion, morality, society, and in the belief system. On the one hand, it is obvious to everyone how mercy manifests itself and what it means, but to really bring it to life and understand its full depth is not at all easy. This quality gives a certain distinction between good and evil, defines a person and what under the auspices of which all life will pass. The presence or absence of mercy in life will determine whether a person is capable of truly loving or not, because love is very rarely selective. The ability to love either exists or it doesn’t.

And if you greet only your brothers, what special thing are you doing? Don't the pagans do the same?
Matthew 5:47

Mercy - what is it? How is mercy defined?

Mercy is, first of all, a human quality . Qualities are manifested in activities, relationships with others, in thoughts, actions, speeches and lifestyle. Mercy manifests itself most strongly in relation to other living beings; it is by how we treat others that we are able to determine whether we are endowed with mercy or not.

Mercy is an equally benevolent attitude towards all living beings, respect and tolerance arising from the awareness of the identity between oneself and other living beings.

Thus, the ability to be merciful stems from the ability to empathize with all living beings. To sympathize means to be aware of what another is experiencing, in a way that would clearly make us understand what can make life easier and bring joy, and what can bring suffering . Mercy is manifested in the refusal of such actions that would bring suffering to other living beings and, if possible, the commission of such acts that would make their existence easier.

Charity is clearly described as a virtue, and is sometimes described as a universal human duty . After all, the ability to truly sympathize and empathize with others in both happiness and sorrow is inherent only in man. If a person is deprived of this quality, this means that his life is subject to other, non-human motives. And what we usually mean by this is that selfish desires for pleasure lead to causing suffering to others. We all understand that human society, for the most part, is built on the fact that some suffer while others enjoy. The labor or suffering of one is the pleasure of another. And vice versa. Modern society is built on this.

Based on this, the fruits of a lack of mercy are increased suffering, disunity, and, as a consequence, the need to exploit others in order to maintain one’s own life or achieve a better standard of living. All this goes in a circle and the spiral of suffering due to the lack of mercy will only intensify until humanity abandons the idea of exploiting someone else's life as a source of its own pleasure.

As a universal human duty , mercy indicates that a person is able to understand that it is his actions that determine whether someone will suffer or be happy. Having abandoned selfish motives in his activities, such a person is able to bring happiness to living beings, both by refusing to cause harm by action, speech, deeds or thoughts, and by joyfully doing what helps improve their lives.

One parable tells that hell and heaven differ only in that in hell everyone tries to eat themselves, but in heaven everyone is happy to feed the other. The point is that hell is a place of suffering, since it embodies the extremely selfish landscape of the consequences of human life, in which the motive of one’s own pleasures turned out to be higher than the lives of others. All sins, in essence, come down to the fact that someone else suffers, and the sinner himself enjoys. Thus, lust leads to the destruction of families, rape and abandoned children. Greed leads to widespread poverty, theft and paranoia. And so on. Such selfish actions, selfish ways of life lead to hell even during life. And if virtue is established in a person’s heart, then, due to the absence of egoism, he is not able to experience suffering acutely and deeply, although it does occur. But a life in which virtue is established is purified by the renunciation of pleasures, the price of which is the suffering of others. It brings happiness that comes from within.

In general, the consequences of merciful actions are much closer to happiness and joy than the consequences of cruel and inhumane actions. It becomes self-evident that a normal, healthy person is not able to see in the suffering of another a source of his own happiness. But at the same time, happiness arises by itself in a situation where someone helped someone.

Mercy is a virtue that manifests itself in a benevolent attitude towards every living being. The manifestation of mercy consists in a benevolent attitude towards every living being, through which it becomes possible to refuse to cause suffering and anxiety, and also to bring joy and happiness.

It is important to understand that mercy is shown to everyone , not only to loved ones or to individuals. And it also manifests itself constantly , and not just at any particular period of mood or time of day. Mercy is based on the understanding that we all experience pain, suffering, disappointment, joy, happiness, and so on. We are identical in this because we have the same nature. At the core of every living being is a soul and to think that your soul is somehow different from the soul of an animal or a saint means that you are looking only at the body.

One day the sage Ashtavakra Muni, whose body is curved in eight places, went to King Janaki, because he heard that the wisest people, those who had found their Path, had gathered at his court. He set out on his journey despite the pain and difficulties. Ashtavakra walked for a whole month the distance that people cover in two days. When he appeared in the brilliant throne room where the sages and Janaki himself were sitting, everyone looked at him and began to laugh. Everyone began to laugh at him, and at first Ashtavakra Muni stood for several seconds, not understanding anything, and then he himself began to laugh louder than everyone else. The king was surprised and asked: “Dear sir, why are you laughing?” Ashtavakra replied: “Actually, I don’t laugh, I cry.” I came here because I was told that wise men had gathered here. And there is not a single sage here! - How so? - Janaki was surprised. - These are the wisest people sitting here! - No, I see only shoemakers here. - What shoemakers?! Don't you see - these are the greatest brahmanas, the sages have gathered here! - There is not a single one here, neither a sage nor a Brahman - only shoemakers! They only see the body. They saw my skin and started laughing. “And I thought there were sages here,” and Ashtavakra began to cry. — The sages are those who see the soul, who have learned to look deep into the skin or some other external shells.

From mercy come the laws of morality, which arose in different cultures, but sounded approximately the same: “do as you want them to do to you.” This is the sound of the golden moral rule, which is reflected in many philosophical and religious teachings.

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Charity organizations.

The desire to give without expecting anything in return is confirmed by examples of the generosity of doctors: Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov, Nikolai Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky, Sergei Petrovich Botkin, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. They devoted themselves to science and saving the sick, alleviated a lot of suffering and saved many lives.

World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day is celebrated May 8 , the birthday of its founder, Henri Dunant. He visited the war and was shocked to see the number of wounded soldiers who were not treated. Henri Dunant described this terrible downside of the war in a book that he sent to all political figures of the time, rich people and his friends. He founded a global organization to help those suffering, became a Nobel Prize laureate and spent his last days in a shelter, leaving all the money to charities.

During her lifetime, Mother Teresa was called the Angel of Mercy, who really became a mother to abandoned children, terminally ill and poor slum dwellers. Mother Teresa always appeared at the scene of disasters, earthquakes, and wars to support people and pray for them. According to her, a huge sin is not anger, but indifference to the misfortune of another person. In the middle of the 20th century, the Order of Mercy was opened. Today, this is the only religious order where the number of people wishing to join its ranks exceeds the number of vacant places.

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The hospice movement , the idea of which originated in the early Christian era, is considered one of the highest manifestations of humanism and mercy The word “hospes” itself is translated as “guest”, “hospitable” and has nothing to do with death. The first hospices were located along the roads followed by Christian pilgrims. These were institutions for the weakened, infirm and sick people, where they took care of body and soul.

Modern hospices differ from hospitals in that they do not “fix” the human body, but treat patients as individuals. There is rarely silence in the hospice - volunteers and musicians work here, relatives and famous actors and writers come to visit. Here everything is decided not by the number of diapers and IVs, but by the spiritual qualities of the staff. The operating principle of modern hospices is to teach relatives to care for the patient in such a way as to alleviate his pain without humiliating his dignity. If relatives cannot cope, nurses come to the rescue.

Is it possible to learn mercy? Can. Empathy manifests itself in different ways, but, in essence, means one thing: voluntarily accepting a share of someone else’s suffering. It is not at all necessary to immediately go to a hospital for seriously ill patients or give all your money to a stranger. You can start small:

Help a fallen person get up.
Pay for coffee for another visitor.
Comfort an upset colleague.
Take warm clothes to the shelter.
Become a donor.
Pay for groceries for an elderly person in a store.
Feed a homeless cat or dog.
Help your new neighbors get comfortable.
Call your grandparents just like that, for no reason.
Leave a note with good wishes in a library book.
Let a woman and a child pass in line.
Ask about the affairs of an elderly neighbor.
Help a non-local person find the right street or house.

This is not a complete list of good things that you can do right now without spending a lot of time and money on them.

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How is mercy different from compassion?

Compassion and mercy are very similar to each other, but it cannot be said that they are so similar that following one principle you can safely ignore the other. The basis of mercy is the perception of another living being who is equally identical to oneself, having the same spiritual basis. The basis of compassion is the vision of suffering as evil, the release of which is good.

The basis of compassion is the renunciation of actions that bring suffering or deliverance from suffering.

The basis of mercy is an attitude towards another that would make the other person’s life better, happier.

Compassion is applied to those who are currently suffering or potentially will suffer . However, compassion cannot be applied to a happy person. Such an application of compassion will take the form of a fanatical attempt to do good, which in itself will bring trouble. Mercy is shown to everyone at all times - both to those who are happy and healthy and to those who suffer.

The combination of mercy and compassion leads to actions and attitudes towards others that self-evidently relieve suffering for all who come under the influence of these qualities. Compassion devoid of mercy will bring “good” to others, without realizing whether it will help or not, because it is important to simply solve some problem, although it may get worse. Mercy without compassion will show concern for the sufferer, but there may be no concrete action. Of course, most often, someone who sincerely wants to help is driven by both compassion and mercy, but the main difference between mercy and compassion is that compassion is shown only in relation to those who suffer or those who could potentially suffer, and mercy is shown in relation to everyone and always. But, again, these qualities are similar and if you have one, it becomes easier to follow the other rule.

An example of the difference between compassion and mercy can be the attitude of a kshatriya warrior and a brahmana sage towards a criminal. The kshatriya will be compassionate towards those to whom the criminal has brought suffering and will try to save potential victims from him. Thus, compassion will manifest itself in killing the source of suffering. The very word kshatriya, which in Vedic culture denotes a warrior, means “deliverance from troubles.” The trouble is the criminal - he is not a person, he is a source of suffering, which means for the sake of justice he must be punished. The attitude of a brahmana is merciful, he will see in the criminal not a murderer, but a person who is deceived and suffering, which means he will try to guide him on the right path. To destroy not the person himself, but the true source of troubles is a sin in him.

From history we know many examples when in this way sinful and fallen people became righteous and atoned for their misdeeds. It is enough to remember who was the first to enter heaven after the crucifixion of Jesus. It was a repentant bandit.

But one should not be directly radical in the clear ideological division between compassion and mercy. It is only important to understand the difference and strive for both virtues. Compassion is manifested in action that will relieve suffering, and mercy is manifested in attitude that will prevent it. This is the difference between mercy and compassion.

Mercy in religion.

The very concept of “mercy” is more characteristic of Orthodoxy and the religions of the East - the teachings of Buddha, Zarathustra, Confucius and the Jewish prophets. In Orthodox culture, “mercy” is close in context to the concept of “medicine.” In Western culture, the concept of “charity” is more understandable.

In Orthodoxy, the idea of compassion and kindness is one of the fundamental concepts. It is part of the most important commandment of Christ, and the New Testament is literally saturated with calls for selfless kindness and long-suffering. In the Christian idea of mercy, every person is the embodiment of the Image of God. This determines his attitude towards others. The description of the Last Judgment contains the main truth: the decision to justify or condemn a person is made on the basis of his attitude towards others: whether he was merciful or not.

The positions of different Buddhist movements have one thing in common: liberation from suffering, which is achieved only in a religious community. A person who renounces personal nirvana in order to teach this knowledge to others is considered merciful. In Zoroastrianism, good thoughts and merciful deeds are tools that help good defeat evil.

In the Laws of the Prophet Moses , according to which the Hebrew people lived, God himself is considered merciful and this requires people to treat widows, orphans and the poor with mercy. In the philosophical teachings of Confucius, there is the concept of “ren,” which is interpreted as “philanthropy” or “humaneness.” In the modern interpretation of the followers of Confucianism, “ren” has become a universal principle that forms the basis of human essence.

In religion, mercy is an important virtue and the practical embodiment of love for God and neighbor. But the commandments are given to us with meaning, and not for mechanical following. To follow them meaningfully, you need to make a lot of effort, to understand the commandments with your mind and soul.

Why is mercy important to a reasonable person?

For a wise person who clearly distinguishes between the eternal and the mortal, it is important to understand that mercy is a prerequisite for peace of mind, since a merciful person relieves himself of the huge burden of thinking about who deserves good and who deserves evil, who is guilty and who is right. Moreover, a benevolent attitude in itself not only helps to prevent conflicts, quarrels, strife, and so on, but also allows you to find friends and well-wishers, who in the absence of mercy could be enemies or simply nobody.

But even the very attitude of treating everyone as living beings with whom we are on the same level makes a person freer and happier. It does not matter whether it is a dog, a cow, a criminal, an ordinary person, a hero or a sage - all are equal on the basis that all are the eternal soul at their core. And such an attitude not only brings peace and tranquility, but also allows you to more clearly see both the spiritual nature of other beings and your own soul. And perceiving oneself from the point of view of the soul is one of the main achievements on the spiritual path .

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What does it mean to be merciful?

To be merciful means that the benefit directed to another person is given freely - not for general praise, public recognition or subsequent thanksgiving. Mercy calms the conscience - a person did not reject the given chance to lend a helping hand, but, due to his ability, eased the life circumstances of someone in a bad state of affairs. Mercy extinguishes anger, suppresses selfishness, and this is an opportunity to accumulate spiritual wealth:

wisdom;
joy;
ease of communication;
sincerity;
philanthropy.

How does a merciful person become happy?

So, mercy relieves suffering to a greater extent of its owner, and not of the one to whom mercy is shown. When we imagine a merciful person, we naturally associate with a happy, kind and bright person who is kind not because he needs something, but because he is very developed, mature, and open. Saints are associated primarily with mercy, and it is from their mercy that their glory stems. The one who gives voluntarily cannot be inferior, and the one who lives in accordance with self-giving, self-sacrifice is self-evidently an authority for everyone.

True mercy always evokes respect and makes it possible to truly change the lives of other people, making them happier and kinder with one worthy attitude. And this is important both for those who want to help people, relieve them of suffering and bring them closer to happiness, and for those who want to show by their own example how they can change their lives. Without a compassionate attitude, attempts to change others will be perceived as nagging, dissatisfaction, stubborn rejection, and people themselves succumb to mercy.

A modern parable about mercy

9 athletes took part in one Paralympics. The athletes stood at the start and waited for the signal. Each of them had a disability. The participants heard the command: “March!” Everyone jumped up and ran. One guy didn’t even have time to run a few meters when he tripped and fell. He sobbed bitterly from pain and resentment.
Hearing the crying, the participants slowed down. They stopped and ALL returned to the start together. One girl approached the sobbing young man, helped him get up and asked how he was feeling. After that, the athletes stood shoulder to shoulder and crossed the finish line in unison. The audience was delighted! Everyone stood up and began to applaud the athletes. At that moment, everyone realized that there are times when it is more important to support another person than to win yourself. You don't always need to move only forward; sometimes you need to stop and look back.

How to develop mercy and show it?

The question of developing mercy is a question of naturally becoming a mature, intelligent, wise and self-satisfied person. As long as we depend on the opinions of other people or consider people as a source of pleasure or pain, we are not able to be merciful due to the strong manifestation of egoism, which puts our own pleasure first. Trying to become merciful before gaining intelligence, maturity and self-sufficiency will result in fickleness, self-interest and disappointment. Frustration is especially common; many people who do not have a solid foundation for acquiring such high virtues soon begin to treat other people with disdain because they: “do not show due gratitude/respect.” But the very essence of mercy is that a benevolent attitude has neither expectations nor grounds. A compassionate attitude is there because it is such a quality, and not because in this way one can become great, respected or gain friends - all this can be a consequence, but should not become a cause.

Mercy arises naturally in the process of following the spiritual path, which consists of comprehending one's spiritual nature and searching for the Absolute Truth. Having seen oneself and other living beings as eternal souls, it becomes self-evident that no other attitude towards others other than a merciful one has any reasonable justification. Neither pleasures, nor false ego, nor selfishness and so on, for a person who has seen the spiritual nature, are no longer a format for perceiving others. In this case, mercy becomes an absolutely natural and characteristic state, which becomes simply inseparable from the personality. And since mercy is shown towards everyone and always, it becomes obvious that it is impossible to imitate it inside, since the mind will change moods, desires, aspirations, and all this will lead to a change in guidelines. Why be merciful when you really, really want something. Such an internal conflict always ends with the fact that an attempt to be sincerely merciful, kind, and compassionate is met either by a lack of strength or by a counter negative reaction. But the very fact of refusal of mercy suggests that it really did not exist.

In this case, it is much easier to be compassionate, because compassion is applied at a certain time, in relation to a certain living being and whenever possible. If we cannot help, and our actions can only harm, then it is better not to make things worse. Do not fill the fire with oil. As has already been said, compassion and mercy are similar and having compassion will help you gain at least an understanding of mercy from within. Therefore, those who want to become merciful must try to be compassionate. But the most direct path remains the spiritual path. Charity must come from spiritual awareness, since at the mental level it is impossible to maintain or imitate such an attitude constantly. At the mental level, it will be impermanent or end in some negative event. But one should not strive for such inconstancy.

The paradox of mercy.

Mercy was given to us initially as representatives of the human race. But it does not manifest itself at the level of instincts. But people have an excellent tool to develop it - education. Teachers know that mercy lessons need to start from the first years of a child’s life. Parents, then educators and school teachers try to instill in children the simple idea of love for all living things.

If in childhood we are taught to love cats and dogs, then adult life passes under the short motto: “here it’s every man for himself.” When childhood ends, the main question arises: why do people consider mercy a virtue? Of what use is it to those who help others? The very idea of mercy presupposes attention to other people's pain and sorrow . The main paradox is brewing: a person strives to do good for himself and at the same time is ready to voluntarily delve into someone else’s “badness.”

The question will help you understand the concept: what happens in the soul of an indifferent or embittered person?

It can be assumed that there have been traumatic events in the life of an evil person. The result of such events was a behavior mechanism: either I hurt you or you hurt me. In order to prevent pain, such a person will humiliate, call and snap, but he himself will suffer from this. This mechanism is described by Freud and is called projection.

Every evil deed corrodes the soul and we physically feel this suffering. After all, the expression “my soul hurts” is not a metaphor, it is real pain that leads to migraines, heart attacks and oncology. At the same time, part of our inner “I” suffers from the lack of good deeds. We expect kindness and compassion from others, but are afraid to let them into our lives.

An interesting example is given by the Dalai Lama XIV in the book “Everything you wanted to ask the Dalai Lama”: “...When I meet someone on the street, I smile and express my human feelings. Whether another person benefits or not depends on his own way of thinking. But I benefit from smiling. He who experiences compassion, first of all, receives the reward himself..."

Mercy is the language of humanism

Mercy is a benevolent attitude that treats all living beings equally at any given time. This quality is spiritual in nature, as it comes from seeing both oneself and other people as souls, not bodies. Realizing that all living beings are equal in their essence, it becomes obvious that there is no reason to be prejudiced, intolerant, radical, fanatical or negative towards anyone. Mercy brings liberation from a large amount of suffering both to the most merciful person and to those towards whom such mercy was shown. The achievement of mercy is an important stage of the spiritual path, which indicates correct development, and the absence of such indicates either incorrect progress or its absence. You can achieve mercy by realizing yourself and all living beings as eternal souls. This is not easy to do, but as you know, happiness is achieved through hard work. Good luck.

Contradictions that prevent people from being merciful

Lately, we are increasingly hearing about such concepts as tolerance, freedom of choice, human dignity and personal rights. We are called to be tolerant and open-minded people. However, a number of conflicts arise:

By providing help and showing mercy, do we not humiliate the personal dignity of the person in need, and thus create inequality, which further leads to discrimination?
When helping our neighbor, do we understand his desires correctly? Perhaps his ideas about the good are fundamentally different from our ideas. Are we imposing personal values and ideals?
In a broad sense, mercy involves active participation in the life of another person. Essentially, it is an eternal service to the people around you. The question arises, do they need this service? Sometimes, in order to find oneself, a person must show patience, perseverance and willpower.

All these and other contradictions can lead to confusion. For some, these statements develop into a seed of doubt. People begin to believe that mercy is harmful and suppresses a person's willpower. Perhaps people do not fully understand the essence of mercy or perceive it in a distorted form. Be that as it may, each person chooses for himself what he should be. If we love, feel good in our hearts, sincerely sympathize and worry about the people around us, then we will never believe that this is wrong and bad.

Listen to your heart, open it to the people around you. Be kind, sympathetic and merciful and then you will know what true happiness and harmony are.

Why is justice needed?

Justice is necessary to avoid chaos in the world. Every person should receive what he has achieved and what he deserves. People who live with justice know that they need to fight and go towards their goals in life, and not wait for a happy turn of fate until what they want comes to them. You should treat everyone around you fairly. Then the world will respond in kind - these are the natural laws of life. Justice presupposes honesty: one should not deceive or lie to people. It is worth remembering that, first of all, at these moments you are lying to yourself. Be honest with yourself first, and then with others.

Why is compassion needed?

We need compassion to the same extent as mercy. Don't you want to live in a world full of smiles, happiness, good mood? A person stricken with grief is unable to smile. Restore his faith in life - share his grief with him. The forces that will go into helping, fighting for the happiness of another person will return to you in double size. By doing good, a person feels a surge of cheerfulness and warmth. You can start transforming a gray, dull, insensitive world today, without delay.